Metro Vancouver voters have same priorities, little appetite for full amalgamation: survey

A file photo shows Vancouver's skyline before the sun fully sets. (CTV/ Pete Cline)

There’s little appetite in Metro Vancouver for a full amalgamation of the region’s 21 municipal governments, according to a recent survey of voters that was done before election day last month.

Data released by the Angus Reid Institute on Wednesday shows only eight per cent of respondents support there being one mayor and city council for Metro Vancouver, even though voters across the region hope their government will focus on the same three issues–housing, homelessness and crime.

“It’s notable that not one of these issues is something that can be solved solely by the municipality on a municipal basis,” notes Angus Reid president Shachi Kurl.

“You’re not going to solve a region-wide housing crisis on a municipal level, or a mental health crisis,” Kurl said in a phone interview with CTV News.

That may be why the majority of Metro Vancouverites support amalgamation of some form, with 48 per cent of respondents in favour of a North Shore merger between North Vancouver and West Vancouver. Thirty-one per cent of respondents showed support for the amalgamation of the Tri-Cities, and 35 per cent were in favour of Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.

“It’s again coming from the fact that there’s a shared purpose in solving transit issues, housing issues…these are not issues that stick to one government’s boundary,” Kurl said.

Metro Vancouver’s 21 municipalities makes it an outlier compared to other major Canadian cities. The Ontario government merged six municipalities into the City of Toronto in 1998, but a case study by the Monk School of Global Affairs found the reform failed to solve the region’s problems.

“The city is too small to address the regional issues that plague the GTA…and too big to be very responsive to local residents,” the study reads.

“Moreover, it does not appear that amalgamation has resulted in any significant cost savings.”

Recent data out of Finland suggests amalgamation can have a negative impact on voter turnout. After analyzing two pre-merger elections and three post-merger elections in Finland over the course of 17 years, researchers found voter turnout declined by four percentage points in municipalities that had combined. The average turnout rate prior to merging in this group was around 69 per cent.